Tanya POV

The leader grasped my hand firmly, with a thoughtful expression on his face. He walked slowly over to my sisters and did the same, ignoring the infuriated expression on Kate's face.

'Innocent,' he breathed softly, eyes shut in concentration. He took his companions' hands in his, still deep in thought. 'Not guilty, as you still appear to think, Caius.'

The silvery blond vampire glared at us with cold, ruby eyes.

'Guilty by association!' He hissed. 'They cannot be allowed to exist with the monster their coven leader created.'

My eyes darted towards my mother at the mention of her name. I could only see her face for her body was blocked by the huddled figures in grey cloaks around her. Her black eyes were searching my sisters' faces hungrily, as she only had a matter of time to look at them. Sasha then caught my gaze and she seemed to say a thousand words. She silently told me to look after my sisters, to keep the coven running and above all, stay out of danger. She then dropped her gaze downwards, unable to look at any of the rest of her family.

The dark-haired leader raised his hand in an accepting gesture. It suddenly hit me that his next decision had the power to end 5 lives. He sighed, and my muscles tightened. He signalled to the powerful-looking vampires directly behind him.

Suddenly a handsome vampire with dark, striking hair flitted to my side, wrapping his strong hands around me. I was confused by this until his grip became unbearably tight, and I realised his arms were to hold me down. I whipped my head towards my sisters to see two burly, insanely strong looking vampires holding them back too. I was too panicked to be annoyed that my sisters had been given the stronger vampires to restrain them, as normally I was highly competitive with them. Were we to be lead to our deaths? I to die, without finding a mate or barely living my life! Then the huddled group of cloaks unfurled and all selfish worries left my mind.

Sasha was standing rigidly in the centre of the crowd, her eyes unfailingly gazing into her own arms. Then Caius took something from his pockets and his arms flashed. An orange haze leapt from him hands, and was thrust into the centre of the crowd. As he moved away, I finally saw the child in my adoptive mother's arms.

The Immortal Child. So special to Sasha, that she would be willing to die for it, leaving her daughters alone? I could see why, however, because it was obvious.

He was beautiful. Easily the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, his small chestnut brown curls framing his angelic face and his cherubic lips opened in an almost comical shock. But it was his bright, glistening eyes which were outstanding, captivating. I would have killed myself again and again for this adorable child, destroy whatever items came in my path, even starve myself of blood to feed this child, to see him smile. But he did not smile, his mouth was turned down into a grimace and his eyes tortured, yet he was still utterly enchanting. He then began to scream, and I had no choice but to join his tortured cries, for he and my mother were being burnt before my eyes.

Irina was wailing beside me, limbs flailing, and Kate were repeatedly shocking the guard behind her, whose eyes were rolling but he impressively held on. I managed to rip myself from my guard and thrust myself towards the fire. Quick as lightening, I was thrown back into the arms of my captor. Purple smoke was billowing around the scene, and all I could hear was the crying, the screaming, the wailing-

Thwack. A ball of ice had been hurled at the back of my head with enough force to smash a window. Although I was glad that it had banished the horrific memories I had been unable to contain, I was irritated my sisters had chosen to ignore my wish to be left alone.

Sure enough, I smelt their scents in the breeze, and was soon greeted by an excited Irina somersaulting over my head and landing at least 40 feet away from me. I turned around to see Kate skidding down the slope, gathering a fair amount of snow. In a flourish she kicked the snow into the air, burying me several feet deep.

I was so annoyed at Kate's unorthodox entrance I stayed buried, so Irina had to pull me out. I shook my hair out irritably. Kate then pushed my head right back into the snow. I raised my hand to slap her in annoyance, but she caught my hand and shocked me lightly.

'You two have no respect for my personal privacy,' I grumbled.

'You need to get over it, Tanya,' Kate retorted, while Irina laughed quietly. I did catch the double meaning of her reply, 'it' also standing for... Edward. Humph. 'Besides, we were just going to leave you here, wallowing in your own self pity in a snowdrift until next summer, but Carmen said she didn't want you freezing to death out here, and after all we do have very important news.'

Did she honestly think I had just been here, lamenting over Edward? It was partly the truth, but I had been thinking about other things as well...

'Important news? What, have you taken up ice fishing instead of hunting again!' I scoffed.

Kate raised her finger, obviously about to give me a good electric shock, when Irina rolled her golden eyes.

'No, just Edward called,' Irina said offhand.

That got me up. Kate was sniggering when I surged forward. Is it possible that-

'He only wanted to talk to me though,' she teased, sighing dramatically. I growled, infuriated.

'Good god Tanya, calm down,' Irina giggled, slapping me on the back. 'Of course, Kate was just dying to talk to Carlisle-' Kate glowered venomously, 'So Carlisle told her that they had some problem with, aaahh, non-veggie vamps, and they have to take care of it. However one of them didn't want to carry on killing, but to start an animal diet, like us. So Edward sent him straight up to Denali. '

Irina looked like she would have blushed and hid if we would have let her.

'So it's a him then, is it Irina?' I teased. I suppose our behaviour came from being frozen as young women, we were always arguing playfully. Irina grabbed an armful of snow and dumped it on my head. Furiously shaking my strawberry blond curls out, I shoved her backwards a few feet and raced ahead, being closely followed by my care-free sisters. I began to wonder about our new addition, it had been an impossible number of years since Carmen and Eleazar had joined us, and like Irina, the thought had not escaped me that maybe, just maybe, one of us three sisters may come out of the experience with a mate...

First Fanfic everyone, so reviews are, of course, greatly appreciated :). Chapters will get longer, and and updates will come as soon as I get my 'pen to paper'...